Utah's $750M Canal-to-Pipeline Project Opens Door for Subcontractors
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District has awarded a $750 million contract to a Jacobs/Bowen Collins & Associates joint venture to engineer the Strawberry High Line Improvement Project, ENR reports. The project will convert a century-old open canal into a pressurized pipeline system.
Market Impact
Built around 1916 as part of the historic Strawberry Valley Project, the open-water Strawberry High Line Canal carries water from Strawberry Reservoir and the Spanish Fork River. Growth in south Utah County and eastern Juab County has pushed CUWCD to modernize the system to serve a projected population of roughly 420,000 people. Brad Perkins, CUWCD senior engineer, says the aging canal is “prone to breaches” and increasingly surrounded by urban development, making enclosure a priority for flood control and public safety. Enclosing the canal will also cut water losses from evaporation and seepage, saving thousands of acre-feet annually, according to Perkins.
The project connects into the recently finished 49-mile Spanish Fork-Santaquin Pipeline, which wrapped construction this past May with the help of $100 million in federal funding from the Department of the Interior. While that pipeline delivered new Colorado River water supply routes, the Strawberry High Line project upgrades the existing distribution network to tie the systems together, serving agriculture and municipal and industrial users through the end of the century.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Pipe-laying and welded steel pipe crews should watch for bid packages in the next year, as CUWCD plans to have “significant” pipe in the ground within two years across up to six subprojects under construction simultaneously, with several more in design.
- Pipe diameters ranging from 36 inches to 84 inches are still being finalized through preliminary design modeling, so materials suppliers and welded steel pipe fabricators (CUWCD has favored mortar/tape-coated, mortar-lined welded steel pipe on past projects) should stay in contact with the Jacobs/Bowen Collins JV as specs firm up.
- Geotechnical and civil subcontractors have an opening now: additional geological studies are underway to identify right-of-way risks and mitigation needs before construction staging is finalized.
- Because the project remains in preliminary design, CUWCD has not yet set construction staging areas or sequencing. Subcontractors should check back with CUWCD or the Jacobs/Bowen Collins JV in the coming months as initial design phases and early construction begin within the next year.
- The existing canal right-of-way runs up to 200 feet wide in places, which should give enclosure crews room to work without extensive additional land acquisition, a plus for scheduling heavy pipe-laying equipment and excavation crews.
